This year's Tales of the Cocktail, a five day event that celebrates and explores the history and spirit of the cocktail with great chefs, mixologists, best-selling authors and celebrities has a special participant. Pisco, a brandy from Peru will present two seminars that sound very interesting. Find out about this and much more about Tales of the Cocktail.

The Official ESSENCE Music Festival After parties will happen on July 3rd and 4th, 2009. Your host will be IDRIS ELBA! There will be a DJ on Friday and live performances on Saturday. Also 6 full bars, good food and celebrity guests. The after parties will be held at The Metropolitan, 310 Andrew Higgins Drive, Doors open from: 10:30 PM - til. Get advance tickets at the Essence website.

Lisa Price's "pop-up" store in the French Quarter will be the scene for some beauty panel discussions and demonstrations at Essence Fest. Read on.

Add another fun event this weeked for Essence Festival. On Friday, July 3rd Picou's Fine Art and Serenity Spa will host an artist's reception at Hotel Le Cirque. Featured artist Charles Bibb's work fuses African, African American, and Native American cultural themes to make powerful cross-cultural statements.